Local Government

Caroline Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average change in total Government grant per capita for (a) district councils, (b) county councils, (c) metropolitan councils, (d) unitary councils, (e) London boroughs, (f) fire authorities and (g) police authorities was in England in each year since 1997.

Phil Woolas: The information requested is shown in the table.
	
		Percentage
		
			  1998–99  to 1999–2000 1999–2000  to 2000–01 2000–02  to 2001–02 2001–02  to 2002–03 2002–03  to 2003–04 2003–04  to 2004–05 
		
		
			 London (excluding GLA) 6.0 6.7 4.4 4.7 12.3 2.4 
			 Metropolitan authorities 7.3 7.7 7.2 5.6 16.1 2.3 
			 Unitary authorities 6.5 8.1 6.3 6.3 16.5 0.3 
			 Shire counties 6.2 8.7 7.1 4.8 13.0 2.8 
			 Shire districts 1.8 3.1 4.5 5.1 10.7 8.5 
			 Fire authorities 3.6 2.3 3.0 2.4 4.5 42.8 
			 Police authorities 2.3 4.5 6.0 2.4 7.3 2.3 
		
	
	The data used to calculate the changes are taken from data as reported by local authorities; they are outturn figures for 1998–99 to 2003–04 and budget estimates for 2004–05.
	Changes between years may not be valid due to changing local authority responsibilities. For example, the decrease for fire authorities between 2003–04 and 2004–05 is due partly to the lower levels of grant per capita received by combined fire authorities compared with other fire authorities. Before 2004–05 grants were not paid directly to combined fire authorities and so these were not included in the figures for earlier years.